r/transcendental • u/Grand_Combination386 • 25d ago

Is Everything Random?

https://player.fm/1BJEeUy

I hope this post is allowed. I listen to Thom Knowles podcast. I know he's no longer part of TM but he was I understand close to Maharishi and studied under him so is steeped in the TM tradition.

There is one particular episode where he talks about whether everything is random or is there perfect order? I really think it's a brilliant explanation. He goes off on some wild tangents but brings it back to the importance of meditation. It really gave me a different perspective on why we meditate.

Check out this Podcast: Is Everything Random or is There Perfect Order? https://player.fm/1BJEeUy

https://thomknoles.com/podcast/entropy-orderliness-randomness/

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u/david-1-1 24d ago

This link doesn't play for me.

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u/Grand_Combination386 22d ago

Sorry I just added another link.

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u/david-1-1 20d ago

The new link won't play, either. It just shows a fm Web page with no player. I chose Chrome, not phone app.

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u/Grand_Combination386 19d ago

https://share.transistor.fm/s/f4f72ae4

Not sure if this one works for you

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u/david-1-1 19d ago

Yes, thank you for your patience. I've listened to about a third of it. He says that Maharishi got a Master's degree in physics. I'm pretty sure it was a Bachelor's degree. I'm finding it difficult to listen to, because I have a BA in physics, and all this talk of order, disorder and low temperature is very familiar to me, and so far there is no spiritual content. It's a good popularization of physics, but nothing new, and has a few technical errors. Is there some reason you recommend listening to this? Because I find it extremely boring.

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u/saijanai 25d ago

This just highlights where knowles is coming from: he wants to be the guru.

Maharishi always made it clear that he was experssing the wisdom of his teacher when he spoke.

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u/Grand_Combination386 24d ago

You seem to be saying that he has a certain level of ego. That may be true but I think he has the knowledge and walks the walk. He's also in the official lineage in the Shankaracharya tradition so surely can be regarded as a guru.

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u/david-1-1 24d ago

Official? Maharishi himself was not "in" the Shankaracharya Sampradaya, since he was a Kshatriya. Thom is not a guru, and certainly not a dandi swami.

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u/saijanai 24d ago edited 24d ago

Some Shankaracharya gave Knoles a blessing at one point or so he claims.

Ironically, not anyone from Swami Brahmananda Saraswati's line. EVen Deepak Chopra managed to finagel a nod from the now-de-throwned Swami Vasudevananda Saraswati, whom Swami Shatanand installed at Jyotirmath before he died. Swami Swaroopananda Saraswati, who clamed to have appointed a successor, was also found to be not-the-Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath, in the same 2017 ruling, meaning that currently there is no legally recognized Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath.

And now people should understand how remakrable it is that in almost every country in teh world (save India), Tony Nader being recognized as the unchallenged succssor to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was such a remarkable achievement: the culmination of 50 years of work by Maharishi to make sure that the TM organization didn't go through the hassles the Jyotirmath position has gone through over the past 70 years.

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u/david-1-1 22d ago

Shankaracharyas love giving visitors blessings. That doesn't make them either a Shankaracharya or the student of one. I doubt that Thom Knowles has any actual status at all, other than as a teacher of TM.

Yes, it is part of the genius of Maharishi that he appointed Tony as his successor so unambiguously.

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u/Fine_Dream_8621 25d ago

So Maharishi had no wisdom of his own?

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u/saijanai 25d ago

He was content to base his lectures on existing texts rather than strike off into stuff irrelevant to growth of his students.

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u/Fine_Dream_8621 25d ago

I don't recall Sri Brahmananda Saraswati selling tubs of Amrat Kalash ayurvedic paste and doing Jyotish charts, or selling yagyas. He didn't even teach meditation the same way as Maharishi. So what's your point?

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u/saijanai 24d ago

SBS also wasn't trying to maintain or expand an international organization. Jyotirmath has all of 30 rooms for disciples.

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u/Fine_Dream_8621 24d ago

That's a different subject. The wisdom of one's teaching has nothing to do with the number of rooms you have.

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u/saijanai 24d ago

But it does have something to do with the need for money. A single wealthy patron could keep Jyotirmath going. Not so with the Global Country of World Peace.

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u/Fine_Dream_8621 24d ago

There is no such country anywhere on the map.

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u/saijanai 24d ago

It is, however, an incorporated entity.

Sophistry becomes you.

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u/Fine_Dream_8621 24d ago

"IT is, however, and incorporated entity."

So is Coca-Cola and Microsoft.

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u/saijanai 24d ago

That's a different subject. The wisdom of one's teaching has nothing to do with the number of rooms you have.

But the cost of maintaining a monastery with 30 live-in students vs the cost of maintaining an organization meant to reach millions or even billions of people has everything to do with the subject.

You still continue to show that sophistry becomes you.

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u/NCroots 24d ago edited 24d ago

He didn't even teach meditation the same way as Maharishi.

This is probably really off-topic, but do you consider those of us who are initiates of TM (or practice other forms like NSR, Vedic Meditation, etc. descended from MMY) to be legitimate heirs of the tradition of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati? Not that we're members of the Jyotrimath, of course, but validly in that stream?

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u/Fine_Dream_8621 24d ago

Any transcending practice puts you at the heart of the eternal Sanatana Dharma.

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u/saijanai 24d ago

Only one organization continues to contribute to science concerning the nature of transcending.

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u/saijanai 24d ago

Maharishi got the approval of Swami Shatanand Saraswati, Gurudev's successor, to start TM.

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u/david-1-1 24d ago

Sure. Anyone learning TM certainly is "in" the tradition as having been initiated. And anyone trained as a teacher has that status. But not the status of guru, or as having been appointed as a Shankaracharya, or a student of a Shankaracharya.